


Episode 4: Schrodinger’s Canary

by nirejseki



Series: Legends of Tomorrow Season 2 Rewrite [4]
Category: DC's Legends of Tomorrow (TV), The Flash (TV 2014)
Genre: Berlin Wall, Canon Rewrite, Gen, Legends Rewrite, Modern Era, Virtual Season/Series, legends of tomorrow season 2
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-09-07
Updated: 2017-09-07
Packaged: 2018-12-25 01:20:07
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 9,996
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12025089
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/nirejseki/pseuds/nirejseki
Summary: While Damien Darhk and Eobard Thawne begin to plot, the Legends continue on with their mission of protecting the timeline: this time in 1989 Berlin at the fall of the Berlin Wall. As they do, they begin to argue about what changes they should or should not make to the timeline – leading Sara to make a decision that could have serious consequences to the team, and the world.(Episode 4 of a full 22-episode rewrite of season 2 - the same broad story arc, but rewritten episodes)





	1. Chapter 1

** Episode 4 – Schrodinger’s Canary **

_PREVIOUSLY ON LEGENDS OF TOMORROW: Sara confronting Rip about Laurel and Rip saying she couldn't save her; Stein meeting his younger self in the 1970s; Eobard and Darhk talking in 1942 in episode 1; the Legends interfering with the JSA's planned meeting; Rex dying in Amaya's arms_

**SCENE: a dark room with an older man tied to a chair with a bright light shining on him; he looks haggard and scared and his face is bruised. He has a British accent.**

“Please – please,” the man begs. “I’ll tell you – I’ll tell you what you want to know.”

There is silence as the man swallows, shakes his head, and nerves himself up to speak.

“Yes, I was there, in France, during the War,” he says. “I was a spy - a double agent, actually, working with the British while secretly reporting to the Russians; I worked with the radio. It was while I was working with the Americans that I saw the relic. It glowed – like a symbol from God –”

“That much we already know from your journal entries,” a voice says from the darkness. It’s DAMIEN DARHK’s voice, but he is not visible. “What we don’t know is – what did you do with it?”

“I didn’t take it!” the man protests, looking panicked. “I tried, yes, it's true, but I never got close enough. None of the British operatives got anywhere close to it! It was the Americans; they insisted on handling everything themselves. It was a strange group, small, very few people. Highly trained operatives with weapons I have never seen before. I swear it!”

“And what did _they_ do with it?”

“I don’t know! I swear!”

There’s a blur and suddenly EOBARD THAWNE is there, vibrating too fast to be properly seen and eyes glowing red, in front of him. “Did you see anything else?” he asks. “Anything out of the ordinary?”

“Yes! Yes!” the man shouts, clearly terrified. “I followed them back to their base. There was – some sort of truck – no, a _tank_ – but with a blaze of yellow flame in the rear – it rose up like an aeroplane and flew into the sky – and then, with a boom of sound, it disappeared! Right before my eyes, I swear it! Please, please, let me go, I swear that's all I know!”

“Is that what you wanted to know?” Darhk asks, stepping out of the shadows from behind the man.

“Yes,” Eobard says. “I suppose it is. I have no further use for him.”

The man looks hopeful for a moment, thinking they will let him go; Darhk then slits his throat in a single motion, looking amused as the man gurgles and dies.

Eobard moves to the side to avoid any blood and stops vibrating. He pulls off his cowl. “Well, that was informative.”

“He told us nothing,” Darhk says.

“On the contrary, my friend,” Eobard says. “This confirms a series of clues I’ve been following up on – strange sightings, all of the same ship, and of the same group of people. I now know who is after the same target I am.”

“Congratulations,” Darhk says sarcastically. “Now, if we could move on to business?”

“Yes, yes, we’ll get to your part of the deal,” Eobard says. “You know, we work quite well together. I’m looking for something that can change my destiny – make it exactly what I want. You have similar interests. Interests which could benefit from my involvement. In fact, I even have the capability of building a time bubble to bring you with me when I move through time, if you wanted. We could work out something more of a _long-term_ alliance of interests –”

Darhk holds up his hands to stop Eobard. “The one-off deals we have now are just fine by me, Thawne,” he says. “Let’s not overcomplicate things, shall we? I have no interest in your little quest for survival, and you – well. You don’t really have anything to offer me.”

“Except knowledge.”

“Except that,” Darhk acknowledges. “Now enough about the future. Tell me all about what happens in _this_ era, so that I can mold it exactly how I want it to go…”

* * *

_INTRO SEQUENCE – by Sara Lance  
"Time travel is real. Ever since we destroyed the Time Masters, all of history is now open to attack. Our team protects history, traveling through time to stop anyone trying to damage the timeline. We're a team of misfits and outcasts...so don't call us heroes. We're Legends." _

* * *

**SCENE: Waverider library**

Sara storms into the library, throwing her hands up, followed by the other Legends coming in. Amaya hangs back by the wall. “I don’t see what’s the problem here! Have I, or have I not, been named Captain?”

“Captain, Miss Lance,” Stein says. “Not dictator.”

“Sorry, Sara,” Jax says. “I’m gonna have to go with Grey on this one. This is a team effort, which means the team gets to have a say.”

“I’m not saying that you don’t get to participate in the decisions –” Sara starts.

“You just want to mess up all of history to save your sister,” Ray says.

Sara spins around. “I’m not going to mess up _all of history_. I’m going to fix one small thing that should never have happened!”

“When Rip was here, he _explicitly_ told us not to do that,” Ray points out. “He specifically said not to interfere in that specific event.”

“Well, he’s not here now, is he?” Sara replies, crossing her arms defensively. “We can’t find him anywhere! And we’ve looked! I’m not saying we give up the search, but we have to focus on saving history, too. It’s what Rip wanted us to do.t’”

“Saving _history_ ,” Jax says. “Not your sister.”

“It can be the same thing,” Sara argues. 

“History’s not just an abstract concept, though,” Nate argues. “History is full of a million small moments that would otherwise be overlooked. It’s the butterfly effect: what looks like a small change could have huge consequences. Who knows what effect saving your sister could have? You could change the future.”

“For the _better_ ,” Sara says. “My sister was a _hero_.”

“That makes her even more likely to have interfered with some major historical event that we don’t even know about,” Nate says. “We’re not in a place to make that call. I don’t know if anyone is.”

“Rip wanted us to be _protectors_ of the timeline – to save the world, like _heroes_ – not to manipulate it for our own purposes,” Ray says. “What makes us any different from time pirates?”

“You can’t possibly be comparing my desire to save my sister to murdering Louis XIV,” Sara scoffs.

“I don’t mind being a pirate,” Mick says, taking a sip from his beer from where he’s slouched over in a chair. “One vote for piracy.”

“Stop helping me, Mick,” Sara tells him. “Please.”

“Hey, Sara, I get it,” Jax says, stepping forward. “I really do. Remember when the Pilgrim kidnapped my dad? I wanted to warn him about what was gonna happen so bad, but I knew it would change everything.”

“But that’s the point!” Sara exclaims. “It’s not changing _everything_. It was only a few months ago in our timeline. We can work with Gideon to minimize timeline disruptions –”

“Captain Hunter warned us about doing this,” Stein says. “He said that personal connections shouldn’t be allowed to influence us to change history.”

“And you agree with him? This whole thing started because he wanted to kill Savage to save his wife and son!”

Stein looks uncomfortable. “Be that as it may, Captain Hunter had the experience and wisdom to see how timeline changes should be made, experience we don't have. I don’t see why we should challenge Captain Hunter’s determination on this issue, which is an issue he's already given his opinion on. Surely he’s the expert?”

“Speaking of experts,” Nate says, “I’m the closest thing we have to one. I’m a _historian_. That’s what I do. I care about the small moments in history as much as the large ones, because I know how interrelated they are.” He sighs. “Actually, on that subject, I wanted to talk again about what I was thinking about, about how I was thinking about maybe going home? I’ve made my decision. I want to go home.”

“But Nate!” Ray protests. "This is your chance to be a hero!"

“No, I’m serious. Not that this hadn’t be amazing and wonderful! It’s just, you know, I _like_ being a historian, and – well, honestly, as much as I liked helping out, saving the world is just way too stressful to me.”

“And yet you’re abandoning us to the world of academia,” Stein says, smiling at him. “That’s stressful, too. Publish or perish!”

Nate laughs. “Still better than World War II!”

“You sure we can’t convince you to stay?” Ray asks. It's clear he doesn't understand why Nate is choosing to leave. 

“I’m sure.”

“Okay, then,” Sara says. “I’ll have Gideon set the coordinates for 2017. We'll get back to this subject later.”

“Yet another diversion,” Amaya says from where she is by the wall. She sounds annoyed. “What a surprise.”

“Amaya –” Sara starts.

Amaya pushes off the wall and walks forward, looking at Sara. “I joined this team because you told me this would be the best way to find the person who killed Rex, because I thought this would be how I could avenge him. Instead, we keep frittering about on irrelevant side trips.”

“Finding Rex’s killer is our top priority,” Sara says. “Unfortunately, until the time traveler makes another move, we have no way to track them – and we can’t forget that we have a larger duty to the timeline.”

“These people make aberrations all the time,” Jax says. “Don’t worry; something will come up soon.”

“Not soon enough,” Amaya says.

An alarm goes off.

“Time aberration detected,” Gideon announces.

“You were saying?” Ray says with a grin.

“When is the time aberration?” Stein asks.

“1989,” Gideon says. “Due to a timeline change during the announcement of the new regulations permitting border crossings between East and West Berlin, the Berlin Wall never falls. As a result, the Soviet Union itself survives, only to fall in a far more dramatic – and devastating – manner ten years later.”

“Oh, man, oh, _man_!” Nate says. “This is it! This is _exactly_ what I was talking about! Small changes, big consequences! I know exactly what happened!”

“You do?” Jax asks.

“The fall of the Berlin Wall is one of the great accidental events in history,” Nate explains. “What happened was the Politbüro for East Germany made a set of regulations allowing refugees to go from East Germany to West Germany and they weren’t supposed to go into effect for at least another day so the border guards could have advance notice to set it up. The fact that people could go through the Berlin Wall wasn’t even supposed to be mentioned. But Günter Schabowski, the spokesman for the Communist Party in East Berlin, wasn’t involved in the discussions about the regulations – he just got a note shoved into his hand right before the evening press conference.”

“Oh boy,” Ray says. “Bet that didn’t go well.”

“No kidding! He just read it out, and a journalist asked him when it would take place, and since he didn’t know, he said it took effect right away. This got broadcast throughout East Berlin and suddenly there was a mob outside the gate; the border guards didn’t know what to do, no one wanted to open fire, so they just – let them all through. And that’s when people starting ripping the wall down. It was a whole series of events, each of them small and irrelevant, avalanching into a huge one. So all someone would need to do to mess it all up would be to delay that note, or include more information, or something like that.”

“That’s an excellent place to start looking,” Stein says. “In fact, I happened to be in West Berlin at the time, though I must admit I missed the actual, ah, wall.”

“Seriously, Grey?” Jax exclaims. “How’d you miss that?”

“I was attending a conference regarding the Chernobyl nuclear disaster – the dangers of fall-out, that sort of thing – and I was very busy!” Stein protests, looking embarrassed. “At any rate, November 9 happens to be Clarissa and my anniversary; we went straight from the hotel to our restaurant and back. Though we did notice the streets were very busy, I’m afraid we assumed there was some sort of parade or something.”

“Only you, Professor,” Mick says, shaking his head.

“Yes, well…”

“And you think the time traveler who killed Rex is there?” Amaya asks.

“It's been our theory that this one individual is the one who’s been causing all of these problems so far, so it’s a good bet,” Sara says. “Nate, we’ll take you back to 2017 after we finish this mission.”

“One last one won’t hurt,” Nate agrees, nodding.

“Gideon –”

“Setting coordinates now, Captain Lance.”

“Captain Lance,” Sara says. “I could get used to that.”

 

**SCENE: the streets of Berlin, November 9, 1989**

The Legends are split up: Amaya and Jax are walking through the streets of West Berlin dressed as tourists, in 1980s clothing, while Sara and Nate similarly pretend to be young adults in East Berlin. Meanwhile, Stein, wearing a suit, is going through an East Berlin building, flanked by Mick in a suit and a heavy jacket (resembling KGB). Ray, shrunk, is flying through some air ducts.

“Ray, have you located the target yet?” Sara says into her comms.

“Almost there,” Ray says, flying out of the air ducts into a room with several men. He looks at one of them, then another. “Got you! I’ve got eyes on Günter Schabowski.”

The door opens, revealing Damien Darhk.

“Uh, problem!” he says. “I’ve also got eyes on Damien Darhk.”

“What is he doing here?” Sara exclaims.

“I don’t know, but he just walked in,” Ray reports.

“This is the person you met in the ‘40s?” Amaya asks.

“Yep, that’s the guy.”

“He may recognize you,” Amaya says. “We should abort.”

“Not yet,” Sara says. “Ray – listen to what he says to Schabowski to see if you can find out why he’s there, and what part of the announcement he’s going to interfere with. Don't go inside the room; Darhk knows about your shrinking tech.”

“Uh, guys?” Ray says. “He’s not here to talk to Schabowski.”

“He’s not?”

“No. He’s talking to someone else. Gideon, I’m sending a picture.”

“That individual is in charge of security for the Wall,” Gideon says.

“I’m going in,” Ray says.

“It’s too dangerous; stay back,” Sara says.

“I can do it, don’t worry,” Ray says, swooping in.

"Ray!" 

“- can deal with our _mutual_ problem,” Darhk is saying.

“And your man can ensure this will happen?” the head of security says.

“Oh, yes,” Darhk says. “Let Schabowski announce whatever the Politbüro likes – if people begin to gather, we will have an opportunity to demonstrate, once and for all, that West Berlin does not represent freedom.” He smiles. “Only death.”

“We will ensure streets are full,” the man says. “Your high-tech bombs will find many victims in the West.”

“Bombs?” Sara hisses.

“I thought they were going to interfere with the note!” Jax adds.

“Apparently I was wrong!” Nate exclaims. “I didn’t think they’d go for _blowing everyone up_ as the option for messing with history. It seems so unnecessary.”

“Blowing everyone up is always the right approach,” Mick says, but it seems half-hearted.

“Is this Darhk man the time traveler?” Amaya asks.

“No, he uses the Lazarus pits to stay alive,” Sara says. “But he was working with someone back in 1942, and I’d bet his ‘man’ with the high-tech bombs is our time traveler.”

“Then let us find him.”

“The announcement will be broadcast at 7:17 PM,” Nate says. “The crowds should form within a few hours of that.”

“Let’s reconvene in West Berlin,” Sara says. “And, uh, find the bombs.”

“How?” Amaya asks.

“What?”

“How do you plan to look?” Amaya asks. “Do you have a plan? An approach? Anything?”

“Uh…”

Amaya shakes her head. “Unprofessional.”

“She’s new at this,” Jax says. “Leave her alone. How about you and me start looking, huh?”

“Fine. I’ll sniff them out.” Amaya activates her amulet for a bloodhound. “Follow my lead.”

 

**SCENE: the Legends moving through an increasingly large crowd, which makes it difficult. They have regrouped and are all together now.**

“I’m telling you, these crowds are far larger than I remember,” Stein shouts as they move through the crowd.

“You sure you remembering correctly, Grey?” Jax shouts back.

“I’m absolutely certain.”

“Amaya, have you found anything yet?” Sara asks.

“Nothing,” Amaya says. “If it wasn’t for what Ray overheard, I wouldn’t think there are any bombs at all.”

“We need to get closer,” Sara says, and starts shoving her way forward.

Suddenly, she knocks into someone.

“Oh, I’m sorry –” she and he both start to stay.

“Say, I know you!” the man, MARTY STEIN, exclaims. “You’re the one who –”

“Stein? What are you doing here?” she exclaims.

“What?” older Stein asks, looking around.

“Younger you is here, in the middle of the crowd,” Ray says.

“Oh dear god,” Marty says. “You, too? Fascinating! Is this before or after the previous time we met for you?”

“What are you _doing_ here?” Stein demands. “Clarissa and I should be on our way to dinner by now.”

“Well, yes,” Marty says. “But it’s practically impossible to get out of our hotel with all of these people everywhere; I went out to see what was going on and to complain to someone about the noise.”

“Oh for the love of god,” Stein exclaims.

“Man, Grey, you were so boring,” Jax says, laughing.

“We need to get him out of here,” Sara says. “With this many people, there’s no telling what could happen –”

Suddenly, there's gunfire. 

The crowd becomes panicked, people are shouting and screaming. Sara immediately leaps for Marty, knocking him down.

“Find out who’s shooting!” she shouts.

“On it!” Amaya replies, dashing off into the crowd, closely followed by Mick.

“Stein, get Marty _out of here_ ,” she continues. “Jax, Ray, with me; we have to try to get the crowd calm or people are going to get trampled.”

“Do you think this was the plan?” Ray asks. “Instead of bombs?”

“I don’t know," she says grimly. 

Stein grabs Marty and pulls him into an alleyway, dragging him along. “I cannot believe I was ever so reckless as you,” he fumes.

“What was that about bombs?” Marty asks, alarmed.

“Don’t worry about it,” Stein says. “Just – take Clarissa, go to dinner, and avoid the streets.”

“But if there are _bombs_ –”

“We’re working on it. There’s nothing to concern yourself about.”

“It sounds like there’s a lot to concern myself with,” Marty says, offended. “When did I become such an awful stick-in-the-mud?”

“I did _not_ become – ah, here’s the hotel,” Stein says. “Now go.”

Marty goes inside.

Stein shakes his head in exasperation.

Marty abruptly runs back outside. “Clarissa! She’s gone!”

 

**SCENE: re-opens in the alleyway in front of the hotel**

“Clarissa’s gone?” Stein exclaims. “How? Where?!”

“The hotel manager said that she went looking for me when she heard bullets – she was worried – why would she _do_ such a foolish thing -”

“Of course she was worried!” Stein explodes. “She’s your wife, you _idiot_!”

“I know that!” Marty exclaims.

“Clearly you _don’t_ , since you abandoned her in a dangerous city on our _anniversary_! Listen here – out of all the awards I’ve won, after everything I’ve accomplished –”

“Did we win a –”

“It _doesn’t matter_ ,” Stein snaps. “The only thing that brings meaning to my life is Clarissa, who is now in mortal danger because you were such a pompous prig that you wanted to tell the street to turn down the noise. My god, man. Find her and cherish her, because she is the best part of your life.”

“Yes,” Marty says, clearly shaken. “Yes, yes, I will – but how? How can I find her in all this mess? You have to take me with you!”

“What? No!”

“I’ll only get into more trouble if you don’t!”

 

**SCENE: abandoned warehouse in Berlin**

Sara, Ray, and Jax are there, and Stein comes through the door with Marty, both looking grim. Sara is pacing.

“I thought I told you to drop him off,” she says.

“Clarissa’s gone missing,” Stein says. “She’s somewhere in the crowds. He wouldn’t stay behind – and I must say, I can’t entirely blame him. Did you locate the bombs?”

“Nothing,” Ray says.

Amaya, closely followed by Mick, enter.

“Did you find the snipers?” Sara immediately asks.

“Yes, I found them,” Amaya says. “I am a professional, you know.” She looks around the room with a scowl.

“And?” Jax asks, looking unimpressed.

“They were firing into the air; just trying to cause panic. Your criminal and I disabled them without difficulty.”

“They stunk,” Mick says.

“More importantly, I found one of them communicating back with his commanding officer,” Amaya continues. “They’re acting as a distraction so that no one gets together to search for the bombs.”

“So the bombs are a go,” Ray says. “But we _still_ don’t know where those bombs are. Do we have any other clue?”

“The shooters stunk,” Mick repeats.

“Yes, we heard you already, they were crappy fighters,” Sara says.

“No, they _stunk_ ,” Mick repeats, this time with more emphasis. “Smelled like shit.”

Amaya frowns. “You’re right, they did,” she says. “I was in tracker mode; all smells are good smells in that mindset, but you’re right. They smelled really bad.”

“Bad,” Sara says, looking contemplatively at a manhole just outside the warehouse. “Bad – like the sewers, maybe?”

 

**SCENE: sewers of Berlin, underground chasm with construction**

Darhk is with a set of men. There are bombs scattered throughout the area.

“You need to keep a close eye on these bombs, only departing at the last possible minute,” Darhk says.

“Why the concern, sir?” a lieutenant asks. “This many guards, here where no one would think to go –”

The doors fly open and Ray flies into the room in his suit, saying, “Maybe not everyone’s as bad at thinking as you.”

The Legends attack and Darhk’s men retaliate.

“I’ve got the bombs!” Firestorm shouts. Meanwhile, the other Legends fight: Ray has his suit, Amaya calls upon a gorilla and starts swinging, Mick headbutts someone, and even Marty slugs someone over the head with a two-by-four.

Sara attacks Darkh.

“You look familiar,” he says. “We must have met before.”

They clash again.

“No, I know,” Darhk says. “New York City, 1942 – and you haven’t aged a day.”

“You don’t seem surprised,” she shoots back.

“You stink of the Lazarus Pit,” he replies. “Tell me, did I take everything away from you? Is that why you’re so eager to kill me?” He smirks. “Or at least – to die trying?”

Sara attacks him again, enraged, and this time is able to pin him.

“Sara, don’t!” Ray shouts.

“Damnit, Ray, this is my chance!” she shouts back.

He flies over. “You can’t, Sara. You can’t. I checked with Gideon. If this man doesn’t attack our home, the Arrow never gets inspired to be everything he can be. He gets more extreme, more violent, and there’s a horrible backlash against all vigilantes. It doesn’t just affect us. It hits the Flash, too, and others, and no one will be left to stop what comes next. You can’t kill him, Sara. Sometimes, time just has to happen.” The fight rages on behind him, and he turns back to it.

Sara stares down at Darhk, then, with a snarl, she steps back.

“You’re weak,” he spits out, blood pouring down his lip, smirking at her. “Merciful.”

“Oh, I’m not merciful,” Sara says, getting angry. “I’m just prolonging your suffering, that's all. ‘Cause I’m from the future, _Damien_ , and I see how all your grand vision, your ark, I see how it ends. I know that just before you achieve everything you’ve ever desired, the love of your life, your wife, is murdered, and in your despair you try to murder your daughter. An entire city rises up against you, and you die, defeated and alone.” She sneers. “But hey. Call it weakness, call it mercy. Call it whatever you damn well like.”

She turns away, letting Darhk get up and stagger away into the darkness. “Jax? Stein?” she calls.

“I’ve got almost all of them neutralized,” Firestorm shouts. “But not all of them. Some of ‘em are going to go off – I’ve focused on eliminating the ones that are under the critical supports, but it’s still going to be a big boom, so we’d better get out of here!”

The Legends quickly rush to the ladders, crawling up to the streets. Marty climbs up with them, filthy from his fight in the sewers. There’s a lot of protestors, dancing and singing and cheering.

“Marty!” a female voice shouts. Clarissa runs out of the crowd, rushing into his arms. “Oh, Marty!”

“Clarissa, oh, god, Clarissa,” he says. “You’re safe – I was so worried –”

There’s a muted boom.

“What was that?” she exclaims. “Was that a bomb?”

“Nothing to be concerned about,” Marty assures her. “We disabled any that were under a structural support. It was – it was rather dashing, actually.”

“I’m sure it was,” she says, smiling. “But who’s we?”

Marty turns, but the Legends aren’t there.

“Ah,” he says. “I – never caught their names.”

 

**SCENE: riverside sewage entrance**

Darhk staggers out of another sewer entrance near a river. He pulls out a device and presses the button.

A second later, there’s a flash of lightning.

“What?” Eobard snaps. “I told you only to use that for emergencies! It had damn well better -” he pauses. “What happened to you?”

“The same group that attacks us in 1942,” Darhk says. “They’re time travelers, from the future. They’re trying to preserve the timeline, make it so someone called the Flash stays active, something stupid like that. They stopped our plan.”

“I set up those bombs for you,” Eobard says, disinterestedly. “I was hoping you’d succeed, but as it appears you haven’t. I don’t see why I care any more than that.”

“Because I want in,” Darhk snarls. “Your stupid plan, whatever it is – I want in. Alliance, partnership, call it whatever you want. Whatever it is you’re looking for that you say can change your destiny? I want a cut of that. I want to change my destiny, too.”

Eobard studies him. “All right,” he says. “Fine. You’re in. We’ll work together and change both our destinies. But no changing your mind again. I need to run _now_.”

“I’m not going to change my mind,” Darhk says. “Where do we go next?”

Eobard grins. “Your information is more useful than you know. You’ve given me just the right idea about how to move forward.”

There’s a flash of red lightning, and both men are gone.

A second after they disappear, there’s another flash of lightning, this time, blue. The BLACK FLASH appears, a monstrous figure clad in black, its jaw half-decayed. It sniffs the air, looking for Eobard. And then, with another flash of blue lightning, it disappears.

 

**SCENE: a crowded bar in 2017**

The Legends are all standing around a table at a bar, Nate sitting there with a beer and a party hat. Everyone has drinks in their hands, except Jax. Mick is slightly off to the side, also drinking. Sara is the only one not with the group, off sitting by the bar.

“Congratulations, Nate!” the Legends chorus.

“You finished your thesis,” Stein says. “That’s quite an achievement.”

“Especially since you did a little saving-the-world while you’re at it,” Jax adds. “Not bad!”

“Not bad at all,” Nate laughs. “ Though I don’t think I would’ve managed it if I didn’t have a few extra weeks to work on it, courtesy of a time machine. Every grad student ought to have one.”

They all laugh.

A waitress comes by. “Another beer?” she asks Jax.

“Yeah –”

“Just coke for him,” Stein interrupts.

“Aw, c’mon, Grey, I _save the world_ on a regular basis, I can have a drink –”

“Not until you’re 21, you don’t,” Stein says firmly.

Meanwhile, Ray is talking to Nate and Amaya. “C’mon, Amaya, you’re with me, right? Isn’t being a hero better?”

“It’s not necessarily everyone’s first choice,” Amaya says diplomatically, smiling.

“But think about what name you could go with!” Ray says. “There are so many options – your grandfather was Commander Steel, right? We could totally go with some sort of metal-related theme…”

Mick gets up and walks to the bar, where Sara is.

“I don’t want to talk,” she snaps at him.

“I ain’t the talking type,” he says. “You’re at the bar. I just wanted another beer.”

“Oh,” she says, taken aback.

“But I will say that you should remember that you’re not alone,” Mick says. He takes a bottle from the bar and turns around to go back. He stops suddenly, seeing LEONARD SNART, wearing the same leather jacket he was wearing when he died, sitting at the empty barstool next to Sara and watching him.

Mick shakes his head and Len is gone, leaving only an empty barstool. Mick heads back into the crowd. 

Sara turns back to her drink.

“Not alone, he says,” she grumbles into her drink. “Not yet, anyway. Not until time travel kills off _everyone_ I love.”

“I'm sorry, is this seat taken?” a voice asks.

Sara turns.

It’s Eobard, wearing regular clothing, and he’s smiling.

 

**SCENE: reopens on the same scene**

(Recap: “Is this seat taken?” Eobard asks, smiling.)

“Man, you are barking up the wrong tree tonight,” Sara tells him.

“On the contrary,” Eobard says. “I was hoping to pass the time in the company of someone who understood my circumstances.”

“Your circumstances?”

He sits. “I heard you mention time travel.”

“Uh, yeah,” Sara says. “Big science fiction fan, that’s me.”

Eobard chuckles. “You don’t need to obfuscate.” He reaches for a bottle of tequila and, with a flash of lightning, sets up a row of shots, gesturing for Sara to take one. “It’s something we have in common.”

“You’re a speedster,” Sara observes.

“A time traveler,” Eobard corrects. “From the year 2200. I mastered the Speed Force to let me go back in time. That’s how I got involved in this whole messy business.”

“Lucky you,” she says. “I just got recruited. How’d you know?”

“A time traveler can always tell another one,” Eobard says with a smile. “You’ll pick it up in time.” He holds out his hand. "Eobard Thawne, at your service."

"Sara Lance," Sara says, shaking his hand. "You're experienced, huh? Bet you've been all over."

“Mostly the near future or the distant past,” Eobard says cheerfully. “I’ve always had a fondness for this era, I must admit, or perhaps ancient Rome.”

Sara nods thoughtfully. “Ever been to World War II?” she asks, aiming for casual.

“Afraid not,” Eobard replies. “I prefer to avoid wars whenever possible. War is certainly not my favorite way to spend my time.” He laughs. 

Sara laughs as well and picks up one of the shot glasses, as does he. “Well,” she says. “To time, may we have enough of it.”

They both drink.

“I heard what you said, earlier, about time travel. Being a time traveler is a hard life,” Eobard says. “Everyone’s always so focused on the big things – saving the timeline, keeping it safe – that no one ever looks at what you leave behind. The home you leave behind. The people.”

“You’re telling me,” Sara says. “It’s even worse when you don’t really know what you’re doing.”

“Oh?”

“Yeah, the only one of us who had any real clue – Rip, Rip Hunter, he’s a Time Master – he disappeared on one of our missions. We all got scattered through the timeline, but he’s the only one we weren’t able to find.”

“Rip Hunter,” Eobard says. “Captain of - the Waverider, I believe?”

Sara relaxes a little. “You know him?”

“Oh, we met before,” Eobard says breezily. “He even showed me how to build a time bubble to help move non-speedsters through time if I wanted to do it in a more long-term fashion - a ship I call the VESPER -”

“The Vespa?”

“Vesp _er_ ,” Eobard corrects her. “I must say, I’m quite sorry to hear that Captain Hunter’s gone, though. It’s what happens with time travel - you lose people along the way. It’s punishing. You have to give up your whole life, everything that means something to you, and sacrifice it all for the timeline. And you can only make the smallest of changes – only the ones you really need, to save the people you have to have.”

“Not even that,” Sara says bitterly. “My sister got killed a few months back. It was stupid, a pointless death; an arrow in the gut from a man who was on his last legs. And everything I’ve done to try to save her has failed.”

“If she only died a few months ago,” Eobard says, “then all hope might not yet be lost.”

“What do you mean?” Sara asks.

Eobard sighs. “Well, I don’t like to brag, but there are some advantages that come with being a speedster, you know. See, as a speedster I can travel through time without necessarily resorting to a time ship, the way you have to.”

“And that makes a difference?”

“Yes - the impact on time is different. You see, while a ship is necessary for long-term travel, as a speedster I can make far more, shall we say, _minute_ changes, using the Speed Force to insulate myself and anyone who travels with me from those changes. The Speed Force basically warps time to make it fit – creating a timeline where the person both did and didn’t die.”

“Schrodinger’s cat,” Sara says.

“Exactly,” Eobard says, pointing at her. “I could run back, get your sister, and bring her forward – everyone thinking that she died – and it’ll be as though she just appeared in the time stream. No harm, no foul.”

“You can do that?” Sara asks, leaning forward, looking excited.

“Oh, certainly, and I’d be delighted to help you out – we time travelers have to stick together, and it certainly wouldn't be – oh, dear, no, I forgot,” he says, looking disappointed.

“Oh, no? What did you forget? What’s the matter?”

Eobard makes a face. “Unfortunately, I have a mission myself that I’m merely taking a short interlude from – I’m looking for aberrative pieces. Small pieces of wood, mostly, that glow and cause time aberrations – there’s nine of them, in all. They were in the Vanishing Point, I think – they act like rocks in the timeline, causing history itself to warp around them. I’ve been having trouble finding them, but the longer they’re out there, the more trouble they’ll cause.” He sighs. “As you know, the timeline has to come first. If I only had a few of them, I could use them to track down the others, but I haven’t had _any_ leads in the last few weeks.”

“You know, we’ve found a few pieces like that,” Sara says.

“You have?” Eobard asks, brightening. “Fantastic! Well, I’m glad someone else is also on the case – it’s a hard job, collecting those pieces; one of the toughest, since the piece itself is causing the aberration and can be held by just about anyone. It’s a really big responsibility – but a great honor, of course.” 

“Yeah, well, it’s one I don’t want,” Sara says. She's tired and she's desperate and she misses her sister; she doesn't want the pressure of being responsible for the whole timeline. “How about a trade? You help me with my mission; I’ll help you with yours.”

Eobard tilts his head, pretending to consider it. “You know what, that sounds perfectly workable to me. Perfect win-win situation for both of us. As I said –”

“We time travelers need to stick together,” Sara says.

“To success,” Eobard says, holding up his glass.

“I’ll drink to that,” Sara replies.

They clink their shot glasses together and take another shot.

 

**SCENE: a dark, creepy field, lit up by streetlights from a nearby parking lot**

Sara walks into the field, holding a bag that is glowing faintly. She looks from side to side, then seems satisfied when no one is there.

“Sara!” a voice calls.

Sara flinches. At least subconsciously, she knows what she’s doing isn’t right, but she’s committed now. Still, she turns.

It’s Ray and Amaya, followed by the other Legends (though not Nate). They appear concerned.

“Hi, guys,” Sara says. “Got tired of the bar?”

“What are you doing here?” Ray asks.

“It’s complicated,” Sara hedges.

“We saw you take something from the Waverider,” Amaya says. “Gideon says it was the glowing artifacts that have been causing all the trouble. What do you plan to do with them?”

“And why didn’t you tell us about it?” Jax asks.

Sara hesitates.

“Because she’s trying to cut us out,” Mick says, arms crossed. “That, or _sell_ us out.”

“That’s not it at all!” Sara exclaims. “I’m solving our _problem_ with these things.” She holds up the bag and shakes it.

“Then why the secrecy?” Stein asks.

“Because I’m solving my problem, too,” Sara says.

“I thought we agreed –” Ray starts.

“You guys agreed,” Sara snaps. “Not me. But don’t worry, I’ve found a way to do this that doesn’t interfere with the timeline.”

There’s a crackle of red lightning, and suddenly Eobard is there, a shell-shocked-looking LAUREL LANCE, pale and weak and in a hospital gown, still bleeding from the abdomen. He pushes her slightly forward; she stumbles.

“Laurel!” Sara cries, rushing forward and embracing Laurel, dropping the bag onto the ground.

“Oh, _crap_ ,” Jax says.

“Sara?” Laurel whispers. “What’s going on..?”

“Gideon will be able to fix you, no problem,” Sara assures her. "Now you're here, it'll all be okay. I've got you."

“Sara, no!” Ray asks. “The timeline –”

“No, it’s okay,” Sara assures him, still holding Laurel. “It’s okay; he’s a time traveler, like us, but he’s speedster – he can change the timeline without affecting it – he can fix it –”

“He won’t fix it,” Amaya says, stepping forward. “I know that lightning."

"The lightning in 1942," Stein says. "You were there!"

"Not just there," Amaya says. "That lightning - I saw it when Rex died. I didn’t know what it was, but – you’re the one, aren’t you? You’re the one who’s been messing up the timeline. You’re the one who killed Rex!”

All the Legends turn to look at Eobard.

Eobard grins. “Guilty as charged, I’m afraid.”

Amaya lunges forward, but Eobard flashes with lightning, knocking her back to the ground and returning to his original position, grabbing the bag from the ground as he does. “Ah-ah,” he says, shaking a finger at her. “You’re no match for me. Especially now I have these –” He hoists the bag. “And you idiots don’t even know what they are, do you?”

“What are they?” Ray asks, crouched down next to Amaya to see if she’s okay, helping her sit up. Her nose is bleeding and she’s cradling her arm painfully.

“These are part of the one of the most powerful artifacts in the world,” Eobard says. “Pieces of the Spear of Destiny.”

“What, the spear that pierced Jesus’s side? That’s a legend,” Stein scoffs.

“All legends have a basis in fact,” Eobard says. “This one was so valuable that it was split up by a powerful magician and the Time Masters themselves locked up the pieces, putting them back together as best they could and using them to power their wellspring of time. But the Oculus was destroyed and the nine Spear pieces were scattered through the timeline. At first they lay dormant, but then some idiot decided to use one of them, and that activated all the others – and now anyone who holds one can change the course of history in their favor.”

“Rip,” Jax says. “His contingency plan! He used the Spear piece to save our lives!”

“So that’s why the aberrations have been happening?” Ray asks.

“I can’t believe a set of idiots like you were able to collect three pieces of the Spear by yourselves,” Eobard says disdainfully. “The Spear isn’t a toy or an aberration – when it’s complete, I’ll be able to rewrite history to suit my own purposes, without any of these stupid timeline changes.”

“But you were the one in 1942,” Ray protests. “That was before Rip activated the spear pieces!”

“Oh, I’ve been trying to change the timeline for a while now,” Eobard says. “A little problem of my own non-existence, you see – some ancestor of mine died due to a timeline change, very inconvenient.” He smirks. “But you’ll know what I’m talking about soon enough.”

“What do you mean?” Sara asks.

“You remember how I told you that changing history with the Speed Force is a little different than changing it with a time ship?” Eobard asks. “Well, that was all true, except for one little part I left out: using the Speed Force too bluntly creates cracks in reality itself. Your Laurel is dead in the original timeline, but alive now, and the only way for reality to fix that is, well.” He grins. “For the target to die.”

“No!” Sara cries.

“Oh, yes,” Eobard says. “I did tell you it was a win-win scenario, right? And it is: for _me_. Before our little deal, I was the only Speed Force aberration in the timeline, and the Black Flash and his time wraiths were hunting me down. But now, he has your sister in his sights, too.” He laughs. “Enjoy her company – while you have it!”

He disappears in a flash of red lightning, the Legends looking after him in horror.

“Sara,” Laurel whispers weakly. “What have you done?”

 

**SCENE: main bridge of the Waverider**

The Legends are all standing there, glaring at each other. Sara is pacing the ground.

Jax comes in through the door, Amaya behind him. “Laurel’s in the med-bay,” he reports. “Gideon says she can fix the damage to her stomach – and managed to fix up Amaya’s arm, which was just badly dislocated – but says that there’s nothing she can do about the time wraiths. She confirms that they _will_ be coming, though.”

“This is your fault,” Amaya says to Sara.

“I know that,” Sara replies stiffly.

“No, I don’t think you do,” Ray says. “You deliberately went behind our backs to do something we all told you would be a bad idea!”

“She’s my _sister_!”

“And I lost the love of my life!” Ray shouts. “You think I didn’t want to save Anna? Rip told me I couldn’t because it would ruin the timeline, though, so I _didn’t_.”

“You were selfish and reckless,” Stein says. “And now your sister will die, and she might take the rest of us with her.”

“There was no way to know that this guy was evil, okay?” Jax says, stepping forward. “Sara thought she’d found a loophole, that’s all.”

“Yeah, a loophole she decided not to tell the rest of us about,” Ray says.

“If you’d accepted your mission like a proper professional, we wouldn’t be in this situation,” Amaya snaps. “Now, thanks to you, not only did we not get a chance to stop Rex’s killer, you gave him exactly what he wanted!”

“You’re one to talk!” Sara snaps back. “If you hadn’t _hidden_ the fact that the guy who killed Rex was a speedster, I wouldn’t have trusted Thawne with anything.”

“I didn’t know about that,” Amaya says.

“And I didn’t know he was going to stab me in the back!” Sara exclaims. “And for all your big talk about being professional, you sure as hell ditched your team in the middle of a war to go seek vengeance for Rex.”

“How dare you,” Amaya snaps, and storms off.

“I think it might be time to reconsider whether Miss Lance is the appropriate person to be our Captain in Captain Hunter’s absence,” Stein says.

“I think that’s right,” Ray says.

“Fine,” Sara says angrily. “I don’t care. What I do care about right now is Laurel.”

She leaves.

 

**SCENE: Waverider cargo hold**

Mick is in there, lounging on a chair, drinking a beer. Amaya storms in and punches a wall.

“Gideon’ll be pissed if she has to fix your arm again so soon,” Mick comments.

Amaya turns. “I didn’t see you were here,” she says.

Mick shrugs.

“Aren’t you upset?” she asks him. “Sara nearly destroyed the whole timeline for her own stupid, selfish, short-sighted interests!”

“Can’t judge her,” Mick says. “I’d do the same if I had the chance.” He sits up a little. “And I think your problem’s less with Sara than it is with the fact that you would, too.”

Amaya looks away, guilty and still angry, then turns back. “At least I didn’t endanger the whole timeline just because I’m unwilling to make sacrifices. I know sacrifice – I gave up my home, my family, to join the Justice Society, because I knew it was the right thing to do for everyone.”

“That’s not the same,” Mick says, slouching back down. “You can sacrifice a lot, knowing that the people you care about are safe. But when you actually lose one of them –” His eyes drop down and his hand goes up to the ring that hangs around his neck. “You lose everything that means anything to you. Putting the whole timeline in danger starts to make sense, because why shouldn’t everyone else lose everything the way you have?”

Amaya’s shoulders go down and she looks at Mick sympathetically. “You’re speaking from experience. Who did you lose?”

Mick looks up and, for a moment there, he sees Len standing behind Amaya, looking steadily back at him.

He rubs at his eyes and looks at her again. Len is gone.

“This team’s already made sacrifices,” Mick says, standing up. “Sacrifices you don’t even know about. So don’t be so quick to judge.”

He walks out, Amaya watching him with a contemplative look on her face.

 

**SCENE: Waverider medical bay**

Sara is sitting by Laurel’s hospital bed. Laurel is still in a hospital gown, but she looks much healthier and is sitting up on her own. Sara is holding her hand.

“When I heard that you were gone, I couldn’t handle it,” Sara says. “I just – I can’t do this without you.”

“You can,” Laurel says. “You’re strong. You’ve always been strong. You survived everything the League of Assassins had to throw at you.”

“And now I’m a bloodthirsty undead ninja assassin _time traveler_ ,” Sara says bitterly. “Go me.”

“You’re a _hero_ ,” Laurel says. “And a leader.”

“I don’t want to be a leader,” Sara says. “I’m not ready to be _Oliver_. I just want to do some good, that’s all. I can’t handle the responsibility of it.”

“You don’t get to decide,” Laurel says. “You taught me that. It’s what you do when the time comes that makes you a hero.”

“Yeah,” Sara says. “But what if I’ve already failed that test?”

Laurel is about to speak when the Waverider is abruptly shaken.

 

**SCENE: Waverider bridge**

The Legends all come into the bridge.

“What’s going on?” Stein asks.

“We are currently under attack,” Gideon announces. “By time wraiths.”

Even as she says that, a time wraith comes in through the main screen. It is a decayed speedster, skeletal and rotting, and its hands are extended.

“Gideon, shields up!” Sara yells, falling backwards.

Mick steps forward and blasts it with his heat gun. The time wraith screeches and recoils.

“Shields up now,” Gideon announces. “There are four still inside the shields.”

“Stop them!” Sara shouts.

The Legends begin to fight the wraiths, but their weapons appear to have relatively little impact and there is more damage done to the inside of the Waverider than the actual wraiths: Sara’s staffs only make them back away, but does not injure them; Firestorm’s fireballs and Ray’s blaster bursts go through them; Amaya is unable to land a punch.

“This isn’t working!” Amaya shouts. “We need a plan!”

“I’m open to suggestions!” Ray replies.

“I have one!” Sara says. “We need to fall back, all together!”

“But –” Jax starts.

“Everyone, quick! Gideon, on my mark, I want you to drop your external shields and replace them with shields guarding only the _interior_ of the Waverider.”

“Understood, Miss Lance.”

“All right, everyone, we’re going to need to fall back at once. Ready – set – _go_!”

The Legends all dash back into the Waverider.

“Gideon, now!” Sara shouts.

The shields go up.

“Did we do it?” Jax asks, landing and dividing back into individual people.

“All the time wraiths are now on the outside of the shields,” Gideon reports. “However, they are now swarming the exterior of the ship.”

The Legends peer through a window, seeing multiple wraiths roaming the ship.

“Additionally, I must warn you that while my shields can hold off the wraiths, they will have no impact on the Black Flash,” Gideon adds.

“What’s the plan?” Ray asks.

The Legends turn to Sara, who is thinking furiously.

“Gideon, can the wraiths follow us into the time stream?” she asks.

“Not without significant difficulty, Miss Lance, but they will be able to follow us eventually.”

Sara nods. “Okay,” she says. “I think our best bet for the moment will be to try to shake them loose and buy us some time. Gideon, can you take flight and use evasive maneuvers, then jump into the time-stream without a captain?”

“I can, Miss Lance.”

“That’s not entirely correct,” Stein says, shaking his head. “Gideon may be guiding the ship unaided by a pilot, but she does have a captain – you, Miss Lance.”

Sara looks surprised. “I thought you said –”

“We were wrong,” Ray says. “When we’re in a tough spot, you’re the one we all turn to, and you step up to the plate. That’s all we can ask for.”

“It ain’t like Rip didn’t make plenty of mistakes,” Mick adds.

“In the end, you’re only human. Mistakes are inevitable,” Amaya says. Sara looks at her in surprise. “It’s what you do next that matters.”

“Thanks, guys,” Sara says, clearly moved.

“Miss Lance – excuse me, _Captain_ Lance,” Gideon says. “What should our destination be?”

Sara makes a face. “Uh, good question. Where can we go that they won’t follow?”

“Nowhere, according to Eobard,” Jax says. “But can we believe him?”

“Now would be a good time to decide,” Gideon says. “The Black Flash has just arrived.”

The Legends all turn to look.

The Black Flash is standing on the deck of the Waverider, surrounded by wraiths. He is hideous. He sniffs the air.

“Black Flash, huh,” Mick says. “Sounds like a speedster problem to me.”

“Mick, you’re a genius,” Sara says. “Gideon – jump us into the time stream, now, and then take us right back into this era – but to STAR Labs!”

“Will do, Captain Lance.”

The Waverider charges up and takes off, leaving the Black Flash and the time wraiths on the ground where they had been docked.

The wraiths hiss and begin to follow the Waverider, but the Black Flash looks in a different direction, where there’s a flash of red lightning. He heads off in that direction instead.

 

**SCENE: STAR Labs**

Barry runs in, holding a device. “That should be the last of them,” he says. “Hartley’s sonic devices work great to shoo them off.” He makes a face. “No idea about this Black Flash, though; I haven’t encountered that one, I think.”

“He’s pretty ugly,” Jax says.

“We’ll get you a picture from Gideon’s cameras,” Ray says.

“Hell yes,” Cisco says, taking the device from Barry.

“They apparently happen when speedsters mess with time,” Sara says. “We'd, uh, kinda figured that you’d know how to deal with them.”

“Only for now,” Barry says, going serious. “These time wraiths are serious business. There was one after me just for going back in time at all; luckily I returned to my present time with relatively little impact on the timeline, so when we scared it away, it didn’t bother coming back. There’s nowhere on earth you can go to escape them.”

“Crap,” Sara says. “So they’ll be back?”

“Almost certainly,” Barry says. “Messing with time as a speedster – it’s not good.”

Cisco slams the device down and storms out of the room.

Barry sighs and shakes his head. “As I’ve recently learned.”

“What do you mean?” Stein asks.

“There’s this thing called Flashpoint,” Barry says. “It’s an alternate world I created when I went back in time to when my mother was murdered, and I stopped the man who murdered her. Except the world started to fall apart – things were going wrong, I was losing my memories, my powers, people were _dying_ – and I had to make it right.” He closes his eyes. “And even when I let the man who killed my mother go, so he could go back and – and make history right again – when I got back, everything was different. Little things. And now there are these husks – you know what, it’s just too much to explain. But just trust me – it’s not good. You have to stop your speedster.”

“He said his name was Eobard,” Sara says.

“Eobard?” Barry exclaims. “Eobard Thawne?”

“You know him?” Stein asks.

“He’s the one I was talking about,” Barry says. “We call him the Reverse Flash. He’s real bad news, guys. He’s the one who killed my mother, the one who’s now at large – because of me –”

“We all make mistakes,” Ray says, glancing at Sara. “As we learned for ourselves.”

“He said he was trying to outrun the Black Flash because one of his ancestors died due to a time aberration,” Jax says.

“Eddie Thawne,” Barry says. “Iris’ fiancé. He committed suicide to stop him.”

“So there’s no way to save the other Miss Lance?” Stein says.

“It’s all my fault,” Sara whispers. “She had a good death, a heroic death, and now she’s going to get ripped apart by those things –”

“Actually,” Cisco says, re-entering the room. “I had a thought. Thawne said there was nowhere _on earth_ you can go to escape those things, right?”

“Right?”

“That’s probably true - for _this_ Earth.”

“Cisco, you’re a genius! We can send them to Earth-2!” Barry exclaims. “You guys remember, we told you about them – with Harry – uh, the new Harrison Wells, not the evil one – and Jesse –”

“I remember,” Jax says. “Didn’t you say Laurel was evil in that timeline?”

“Uh,” Cisco says. “Well, yes. But I’m sure we can come up with something?”

“She’ll still be gone, though,” Sara says. “She won’t be able to go home, to see everyone, to live in peace - I won’t be able to see her –”

“Still better than being dead,” Barry says gently.

“You’re right,” Sara says, straightening up.

“Besides, give me time,” Cisco says. “I will _totally_ set up a way for her to skype with you and your dad from Earth-2.”

“Oh yeah,” Ray says. “Someone should probably tell Mr. Lance that his daughter’s alive.”

 

**SCENE: Waverider storage room**

Laurel is sitting on one of the crates, wearing a Star labs sweatshirt and sweatpants. Sara walks in.

“So, what’s the verdict?” Laurel asks.

“Barry will take you to Earth-2,” Sara says. “It’s not the same as being home, but it’s something.”

Laurel nods. “That’s okay,” she says. “Given my alternative is being dead.”

“I’ll miss you,” Sara says.

“Don’t worry,” Laurel says firmly. “It’ll be like when I went away to college, remember?”

“Yeah, for the two years before you thought _I’d_ died,” Sara says, wincing.

“After sleeping with my boyfriend,” Laurel teases. “Don’t forget that.”

Sara laughs.

Laurel reaches out and takes Sara’s hands. “Sara, what I said when you started this voyage still applies. This is your moment of heroism, to step up and take on the responsibility – to the world, but also to your team. You can do it. I believe in you. And if you ever need me, I’ll be here, just one universe-hopping call away.”

Sara wipes at her eyes. “Thanks. That means a lot.”

Barry and Cisco arrive. “You ready to go?”

“I’m ready,” Laurel says, standing up. She gives Sara a long hug. “Do good, sis.”

“I will,” Sara says. “You too.”

They open up a portal and go through it. 

Sara watches them go, still upset.

Amaya enters the room and Sara glances at her.

“When the Allies came to my village,” Amaya says slowly. “I didn’t want to go with them. I wanted to stay home, to defend my village, defend my people. I said no. It was only after they told me stories from the front, showed me pictures – it was only then that I understood that the whole world was at stake. But I still didn’t want to go. It was only when my mother came to me and reminded me that the totem isn’t just a gift, it’s a responsibility to not just our village, but to humanity, that I stepped up. And even when I did, I made mistakes. Lots of them. Rex – Rex was there to help me back up after each one.” She swallows. “I’m sorry for what I said, earlier. I was so wrapped up in my revenge for Rex, I didn’t think about your perspective. And – if I was in your shoes, and it was Rex, or my mother, I would have done the same.”

Sara nods. “Thank you,” she says. “It doesn’t change the fact that it was a mistake, and that’s on me, and always will be. But I can’t just sit and mope about it. I have to fix it. No – _we_ have to fix it. Together, as a team.”

She squares her shoulders and walks out, followed by Amaya.

 

**SCENE: Waverider bridge**

Sara and Amaya walk to the bridge, where all the other Legends are waiting.

“Thank you all for believing in me,” Sara says. “I’m going to do my best to be your captain – and not your dictator. We’re going to have to work together as a team if we’re going to succeed.”

“Succeed in what?” Ray asks.

“Eobard is collecting the pieces of the Spear of Destiny in order to reorganize history as he sees fit,” Sara says. “According to Barry, he’s really bad news, and that means we can’t let it happen. Eobard said that there were nine pieces total, and he only has three. That means it’s our job to get to the rest of them, _first_.”

Everyone nods.

“But that’s not all,” Sara says. “Eobard’s whole deal has been to cause time aberrations to change the timeline so that Eddie Thawne never dies, and those pieces will only help him do that. Since it’s my fault that he has them in the first place, that means we can’t just let him have them. We have to steal them back.”

Everyone turns to look at Mick, who is sitting in one of the chairs.

“Don’t look at me,” Mick says.

“You’re our resident thief,” Ray points out.

“I’m your resident arsonist,” Mick clarifies. “What you’re talking about ain’t stealing – it’s a heist. And for a heist, you need a planner – and that was always Snart’s job.”

“That doesn’t help us now,” Sara says. “Snart’s dead.”

“Actually,” Mick says, “that’s not _entirely_ true.”

The Legends look at him blankly, not understanding.

“Not _all_ the Snarts are dead.”

 

**SCENE: Waverider bridge**

Lisa Snart walks on board, her gold gun strapped to her side, smirking.

“So,” she says. “This is where the magic happens.”

 

**END CREDITS.**


	2. Chapter 2

[see on tumblr here](http://kickingshoes.tumblr.com/post/165084610772/art-for-the-fourth-lotrewrite-written-by)

Kickingshoes' tarot card for Episode 4 - they've created a full set of Major Arcana based on the episodes! See more of their art [here](http://kickingshoes.tumblr.com/tagged/our-art)!


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